Ryanair and easyJet are threatening to withhold payments to BAA in a row over landing fees at Gatwick and Stansted.

Ryanair said yesterday that it will refuse to pay the latest price increases if BAA “continues to abuse its monopoly“. EasyJet asked BAA chief executive Colin Matthews to accept a deferral of payments pending a judicial review of the increase in take-off and landing fees at Gatwick to £6.97 a passenger, with annual increases capped at 2% above inflation.